Welcome to DBSTalk

Welcome to DBSTalk. Our community covers all aspects of video delivery solutions including: Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Cable Television, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). We also have forums to discuss popular television programs, home theater equipment, and internet streaming service providers. Members of our community include experts who can help you solve technical problems, industry professionals, company representatives, and novices who are here to learn.

Like most online communities you must register to view or post in our community. Sign-up is a free and simple process that requires minimal information. Be a part of our community by signing in or creating an account. The Digital Bit Stream starts here!

So the question was, "Why does the Directv website show they have 197 DMAs with HD Locals and you guys only show 196?"

So after much head-scratching, I found the website has Davenport, IA and Moline, IL listed as two DMA's with HD Locals. Both cities do have HD Locals. But both cities are in the same DMA, #99 - Nielsen lists that DMA as 'Davenport IA/Rock Island-Moline, IL'.

Another Syracuse question. The CW affiliate, WSTQ, was only available in HD to cable customers for a long time, but then in January of this year, they upgraded the OTA signal to HD as a subchannel of the WSTM signal (WSTM is NBC downsampled to 720p on 3.1 and WSTQ is in 720p on 3.2). When the change was first made, we immediately began getting CW in HD on D*, but then about a week or so later, it changed to just a letterboxed and pillarboxed image and that's how it remains today. The station engineer doesn't know why D* at first picked up and passed through the HD signal but then stopped. He is having trouble getting an answer from D*. Anyone here have any insight?

Interesting story...

DirecTV finally got around to replacing my local ABC SD feed with an HD feed on November 28, 2012, but it wasn't until several weeks ago that I realized that ABC was being broadcast in 1080i HD via DirecTV. Apparently, the local NBC/ABC affiliate provides DirecTV/DISH, and the cablecos with an upconverted 1080i HD feed.

I may never would have known this had I not been told this while being asked about the PQ on the local NBC/ABC feeds, as they've started broadcasting ABC in HD OTA as well. NBC is 1080i OTA, and ABC is 720p OTA.

I'll check when I get home tonight. Just to let you know a little backstory on WCNY - the Syracuse PBS station. They have used their 24.4 subchannel as their HD feed, while D* has carried their 24.1 and 24.2 channels which are just SD. WCNY is currently transitioning to a new broadcast center and will also change their HD feed to the 24.1 channel. I think some of this is in progress this week. I've been checking but have yet to see any true HD on 24.1, but I've not paid attention to what resolution 24.1 has been coming through at. I'm hoping to soon turn on 24 and see an HD broadcast.

Another Syracuse question. The CW affiliate, WSTQ, was only available in HD to cable customers for a long time, but then in January of this year, they upgraded the OTA signal to HD as a subchannel of the WSTM signal (WSTM is NBC downsampled to 720p on 3.1 and WSTQ is in 720p on 3.2). When the change was first made, we immediately began getting CW in HD on D*, but then about a week or so later, it changed to just a letterboxed and pillarboxed image and that's how it remains today. The station engineer doesn't know why D* at first picked up and passed through the HD signal but then stopped. He is having trouble getting an answer from D*. Anyone here have any insight?

Thank You!Both Alan and I appreciate your help.Please keep us posted as things transition with WCNY.

Update: I've confirmed with the engineer at WCNY that they have completed all their changes and are now broadcasting in HD on 24.1 OTA instead of 24.4 but I've not seen any changes on D* and am still getting 480i SD on 24.1. I know D* picks up their OTA signal for retransmission, so why are we not getting it in HD yet? They must be downconverting it back to 480i - when will they start passing through the HD signal?

Same question for the CW affiliate WSTQ? When they first upgraded their OTA to HD back in January, it was in HD on D* for about a week, but ever since it's been back to SD and a really tiny picture at that - even smaller than 4x3 that's both letterboxed and pillarboxed. When will D* start passing through the WSTQ HD signal?

Is there a D* employee here that can help get these changes made? Thanks.

So the question was, "Why does the Directv website show they have 197 DMAs with HD Locals and you guys only show 196?"

So after much head-scratching, I found the website has Davenport, IA and Moline, IL listed as two DMA's with HD Locals. Both cities do have HD Locals. But both cities are in the same DMA, #99 - Nielsen lists that DMA as 'Davenport IA/Rock Island-Moline, IL'.

So the question was, "Why does the Directv website show they have 197 DMAs with HD Locals and you guys only show 196?"

So after much head-scratching, I found the website has Davenport, IA and Moline, IL listed as two DMA's with HD Locals. Both cities do have HD Locals. But both cities are in the same DMA, #99 - Nielsen lists that DMA as 'Davenport IA/Rock Island-Moline, IL'.

So our 196 HD locals is correct! Yeah!

Davenport, IA ; Rock Island, IL ; and Moline, IL are listed as separate markets. They are in fact all one DMA. Lafayette, IL is left out of that list.I've reconciled that list in the past and seem to remember another error but can't find it quickly.

Davenport, IA ; Rock Island, IL ; and Moline, IL are listed as separate markets. They are in fact all one DMA. Lafayette, IL is left out of that list.I've reconciled that list in the past and seem to remember another error but can't find it quickly.

After about a month trial separation, Anchorage ABC affiliate KYUR and Directv have decided to patch things up and give it another go, and so KYUR returned to the Directv family within the past few days.

Sometime in the last couple days, an iON affiliate went live in Nashville. Channel 28 in HD.

Its actually only a virtual remap of ION East HD from channel 305; my DMA added it as well.

If you arrow over to the channel callsign in the Guide it should say ION-TV (Virt), only if you see something to the effect of WNPX-TV, 28, would it be the actual feed out of Cookeville, TN. There is only a few differences between the National ION feed and the local OTA version.

The CW in the Albany, NY market, WCWN, has gone HD with DirecTV sometime within the last week. It's been available in HD OTA and via TWC for years, but DirecTV has finally started to carry the HD feed. I'm assuming it must be something to do with the new agreement with Sinclair.

Update: I've confirmed with the engineer at WCNY that they have completed all their changes and are now broadcasting in HD on 24.1 OTA instead of 24.4 but I've not seen any changes on D* and am still getting 480i SD on 24.1. I know D* picks up their OTA signal for retransmission, so why are we not getting it in HD yet? They must be downconverting it back to 480i - when will they start passing through the HD signal?

Same question for the CW affiliate WSTQ? When they first upgraded their OTA to HD back in January, it was in HD on D* for about a week, but ever since it's been back to SD and a really tiny picture at that - even smaller than 4x3 that's both letterboxed and pillarboxed. When will D* start passing through the WSTQ HD signal?

Is there a D* employee here that can help get these changes made? Thanks.

An engineer from WSTQ has said that he's filed all the paperwork with D* for D* to pickup their new OTA HD signal but D* informed him they do not have satellite capacity to add it at this time. I'm sure this is also why we aren't getting PBS now that it's in HD OTA. Syracuse only gets 5 local channels in HD from D* - is that the max for an HD LIL market? Buffalo gets 9 HD local channels, so why isn't there room on the Syracuse spot beam?

I have no inside knowledge and do not know the transponder numbers, but Sinclair also has a CW affiliate in Rochester which is not being broadcast on Directv. I assume that the capacity issue is at play too since the contract has been resolved.

An engineer from WSTQ has said that he's filed all the paperwork with D* for D* to pickup their new OTA HD signal but D* informed him they do not have satellite capacity to add it at this time. I'm sure this is also why we aren't getting PBS now that it's in HD OTA. Syracuse only gets 5 local channels in HD from D* - is that the max for an HD LIL market? Buffalo gets 9 HD local channels, so why isn't there room on the Syracuse spot beam?

Not sure why there is a capacity problem for WSTQ's HD feed. While the TPN maps can't see the resolution of the signals, Syracuse, is listed as using SB Tp. 21 and 22 from D11 with 7 channels on Tp. 21, which based on your description 3 are only in SD, and 1 HD channel, WNYS (MNT) on Tp. 22.

As for the issue with WCNY (24-1) I notice on the map that is a PBS station which also has a secondary sub-channel WNCY2 (labeled 24-2?). Now a few years ago on this forum I remember a poster explaining that the PBS stations are given one of two options by DIRECTV for signal carriage. Either the HD feed on their main OTA sub-channel may be carried alone, or to carry the main sub-channel in SD form (by down-converting the HD feed if necessary) along with a secondary sub-channel of the station's choice.

For instance here in So. Cal. we have a local PBS station, KVCR in San Bernardino (coincidentally also on virtual channel 24-1), which does this as well. The main OTA sub-channel is broadcast in HD (720p), yet DIRECTV only carries it in SD along with the station's secondary sub-channel 24-2 (FNX, First Nation's Experience) is carried as well.

And noticeably KVCR 24-2 was added at the same time a large number of other locals went HD on DIRECTV.

So the situation with WCNY like KVCR may be done by policy.

To note: DIRECTV also carries another local PBS station here, KLCS 58-1 Los Angeles, managed by the LA Unified School District along with one of its secondary sub-channels, 58-2. However while the main 58-1 is in SD off-air as well, the PBS policy option of allowing 1 main SD + a secondary SD sub may be the same here as well even though there is no HD feed for this station to select the other option.

WCNY has 4 OTA channels (24-1, 24-2, 24-3 and 24-4). They used to put the national HD feed on 24-4 and used 24-1 as their local programming. In March of this year they changed it so now the national HD feed is on 24-1. D* has always carried 24-1 and 24-2 but never 24-3 or 24-4. Since WCNY made their switch in March, we are still getting just 480i SD on both 24-1 and 24-2. The only thing that's changed is that the programming has changed some on 24-1 now that it's the national feed. So D* is obviously picking up the HD feed on 24-1 (as evidenced by the different programming) but are downconverting it to 480i SD. I really wish we'd get it in HD like they pick it up.

WCNY has 4 OTA channels (24-1, 24-2, 24-3 and 24-4). They used to put the national HD feed on 24-4 and used 24-1 as their local programming. In March of this year they changed it so now the national HD feed is on 24-1. D* has always carried 24-1 and 24-2 but never 24-3 or 24-4. Since WCNY made their switch in March, we are still getting just 480i SD on both 24-1 and 24-2. The only thing that's changed is that the programming has changed some on 24-1 now that it's the national feed. So D* is obviously picking up the HD feed on 24-1 (as evidenced by the different programming) but are downconverting it to 480i SD. I really wish we'd get it in HD like they pick it up.

Though KVCR's main national feed has always been on 24-1 to my knowledge, otherwise the same situation exist here. KVCR has 4 sub-channels as well, and when 24-1 went HD (to 720p) many months back, it still remains in SD on DIRECTV. And during a recent surge by DIRECTV carrying local channels in HD, KVCR only added 24-2 FNX (programming geared toward native american Indians) which leads me to believe this is done by policy.

Not sure why there is a capacity problem for WSTQ's HD feed. While the TPN maps can't see the resolution of the signals, Syracuse, is listed as using SB Tp. 21 and 22 from D11 with 7 channels on Tp. 21, which based on your description 3 are only in SD, and 1 HD channel, WNYS (MNT) on Tp. 22.

They squeezed WNYS onto the the TPN/TID that carries the Burlington stations, so there is no room for more there.

I used to live in the Syracuse DMA, and received WCNY's HD feed on cable. It was excellent, and I understand why people would be disappointed in not getting it on DirecTV. Luckily, in the markets I now live in, I get good HD PBS.